Freaky Friday Files: Australian Lost Media
- Ash
- Apr 24
- 4 min read
Hi friends! Happy Friday! For this week's edition of Freaky Friday Files, I thought we could take a look at some lost media from Australia. I won't go into too much detail, but I was thinking about lost media today and thought this would be a fun thing to write about. It came up in one of my recent iceberg posts (Unsolved Mysteries, Questions, and Phenomena Iceberg Explained) and isn't something I've really researched before. This post isn't a deep dive, but more of a "hey look, here's some lost media from Aus". I might do a New Zealand one too because I'll probably be able to relate to some of that sorta lost media more. I just realised I could have explained that in a way better way too (i.e., examples of Australian lost media). Lol, anyway.
According to Wikipedia, "Lost media is any type of media thought to no longer exist in any format, or for which no copies can be located, partial or otherwise. The term primarily encompasses visual, audio, or audiovisual media, such as films, television, radio broadcasts, music, and video games." A lot of radio and TV broadcasts have been lost due to wiping and/or being destroyed. It's interesting now that we have more archiving practices and more digital footprints (e.g., Wayback Machine). I also wonder if sometimes lost media isn't lost at all, and some (not all) of the media is just like a collective false memory. But how would we ever know this? Something to ponder...
I've taken some of these examples from Reddit users and also from the Lost Australia Media Wiki.
PIN IT
Australian Lost Media
A TV show called "Beyond 2000". One Reddit user, goober_ginge, said, "I remember seeing a swing that went all the way round on it and thought they'd be in all playgrounds within a year or so. They were not." In reference to this show, another user, coffeeandarabbit, said, "The one I remember is when they attached microscope particles of gold to the antigens they make into vaccines. Due to the weight of the gold particles, you could stamp the dosage through the skin/pores without an injection or any pain. I thought that sounded brilliant. Never seen that on the market either." I think this show used to be called Beyond Tomorrow and was then renamed to Beyond 2000. I found a full episode on YouTube "here". WTF was this show?
A show from SBS called "Eat Carpet". According to Wikipedia, Eat Carpet was an SBS TV show that aired from 1989 to 2005, which had hour-long episodes of clips of short films from film students and amateur directors. The only thing I could find is "this 2-minute clip" on SBS.
The Glass House (ABC) - apparently, this is only partially lost as AppleTV+ has the first two seasons, but seasons 4-6 are nowhere to be found. Oh, it's a comedy TV show that had Wil Anderson, Dave Hughes (Hughesy), and Corinne Grant and aired from 2001 - 2006.
Wiggles in Wonderland - This was a 2D animation of The Wiggles pitched to The Wiggles by ex-Disney employees around 2006/2007. The concept was scrapped, and no one knows why. It's not super clear what the full concept was, but it sounds like it was going to be some sort of Alice in Wonderland adventure with The Wiggles as cartoons. Some of it was made, but we don't know where, and it never aired.
Bodgy Builder - A parody of Bob the Builder (it has been partially found). You can watch the found clips on YouTube "here". I only got through about a minute because I hate claymation with a passion. Chicken Run is like a horror to me. I don't know why I hate claymation so much, bleugh. Also, sorry Wallace and Gromit.
Two episodes of Bananas in Pyjamas, titled "Odd Socks" and "Self Serve". I loved this show as a kid LOL. I believe the episodes may have found their way to YouTube, but I'm not 100% sure.
A movie called "Pirates Island" from 1991, where a bunch of kids who went on a hot air balloon ended up stranded on a remote tropical island inhabited by pirates living in the past. The kids were terrorised by the pirates while they were there. This movie sounds so familiar to me, maybe NZ got it when I was a kid.
The silent film "The Story of the Kelly Gang" from 1906. According to Lost Media Wiki, the plot of this film is as follows: "The film centres on Ned Kelly, who was one of the last bushrangers, a convicted murderer, and the leader of the Kelly Gang ("bushranger" refers to armed robbers in Australia during the mid-late 1800’s – think American old western outlaw archetype). The story goes through the gang evading police, holding up businesses, and committing murders, culminating in their “last stand” against police, which results in Ned Kelly’s and several gang members’ deaths. Ned Kelly’s death in the film differs from his actual death (he was tried and hanged for his crimes), but it is unclear how historically accurate the rest of the film was. A program containing a scene by scene narrative was available for audiences, which has survived and helped film historians make sense of the footage discovered over the years." Apparently, only 20 minutes of this movie has ever been found.
In doing this research, I also came across a YouTube video called "The Lost Media of Australia". You can watch it here!
All this lost media stuff makes me think, I wonder what's on people's VHS? We all used to tape random stuff on TV, so it would be very interesting what's in some people's closets LOL. Showing my age with VHS now, haha.
Do you have a piece of lost media that you're looking for? Comment below, and maybe we (i.e., the internet) can help you!
Ash x
SAVE TO PINTEREST
Comments